Summary The Fiduciary Service Representative (FSR) is responsible for making factual quasi-legal and subjective determinations involved in the administration of all types of beneficiary estates, the protection of their benefit rights, the routine handling of legal matters, and the identification of legal questions. The FSR also has knowledge of benefit programs and entitlement criteria, inputs data necessary to complete a final rating of competency, generates awards and authorizes payments. Responsibilities Analyzes and makes the final determination of the competency of veterans and other VA beneficiaries and provides the final notification of the determination. Generates the award for the retroactive payment release, once a fiduciary is established, as well as other award actions needed by the Fiduciary Program. Authorizes, reviews and approves the pending award action for technical accuracy, clarity, and thoroughness. Insures that estate protection is in place, when appropriate, before releasing large retroactive payments and in other cases where the VA beneficiary's funds may not be adequately protected. Prepares Statements of the Case (SOC) on Fiduciary Program appeals. Provides training to other members of the Fiduciary Hub, VARO employees, service organization personnel, and other stakeholders, as needed. Serves as a Veterans Service Representative (VSR) and Legal Instruments Examiner (LIE) expert and provides technical guidance in regard to the rating, generation and authorization of Fiduciary Program awards. Utilizes various electronic data processing (EDP) systems for processing, monitoring, and correspondence preparation. Communicates directly with VA beneficiaries, eligible individuals, representatives, and advocates to explain the full range of VA benefits and all related programs. Gives final approval of accounts received from guardians, attorneys, legal custodians, or chief officers of state institutions except those showing a major account deficiency which cannot be remedied by correspondence. Approval is only given if the accounting is proper in every respect including commissions and/or fees within statutory or policy limits. Advises fiduciaries of regulations, necessary documentation and other factors which affect computation of income for VA purposes. Prepares reports for guardians in those cases in which VA is rendering legal services. Refers to the Office of the Inspector General (OIG), accounts in which there is a possible indication of fraud, embezzlement or other criminal offense. Performs other related duties as assigned. Promotion Potential: The selectee may be promoted to the full performance level without further competition when all regulatory, qualification, and performance requirements are met. Selection at a lower grade level does not guarantee promotion to the full performance level. Requirements Conditions of Employment Qualifications To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 11/21/2024. Time-In-Grade Requirement: Applicants who are current Federal employees and have held a GS grade any time in the past 52 weeks must also meet time-in-grade requirements by the closing date of this announcement. For a GS-10 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-9. The grade may have been in any occupation, but must have been held in the Federal service. An SF-50 that shows your time-in-grade eligibility must be submitted with your application materials. Note: Time-In-Grade requirements also apply to former Federal employees applying for reinstatement. The grade may have been in any occupation, but must have been held in the Federal service. An SF-50 that shows your time-in-grade eligibility must be submitted with your application materials. If the most recent SF-50 has an effective date within the past year, it may not clearly demonstrate you possess one-year time-in-grade, as required by the announcement. In this instance, you must provide an additional SF-50 that clearly demonstrates one-year time-in-grade. Note: A copy of your most current SF 50 is required to verify your status. Additional SF 50's must be provided to verify that you have 52 weeks Time in Grade if applying for a higher grade. You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below: Specialized Experience: To qualify for GS-10: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-09 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Specialized Experience Requirement include but are not limited to:GS-10 Specialized Experience: One year of Specialized Experience which is equivalent to the GS-09 level. Specialized experience is defined as experience Applying federal, state, and local laws regarding benefit programs; Conducting interviews to evaluate eligibility for benefits and services; Applying state laws pertaining to conservatorship and estate administration; and/or Knowledge of fiduciary and field examination programs sufficient to protect beneficiary's assets; OR, Education substitution of 2½ years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to a Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree in degree in Business, Management, Economics, Finance, or another degree with coursework that demonstrates the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do this work of this position. Graduate level courses must demonstrate your education has provided you the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work of this position (as described in the How You Will Be Evaluated section of this announcement). OR, Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at the GS-10 level. Only graduate education in excess of two full years can be used to combine with experience. The combination of experience and education must total at least one year. [To compute your combined total, divide your total months of qualifying experience by 12. Then divide your semester hours of graduate education by 45. Add the two percentages. The total percentage must equal at least 100% to qualify. GS-11 Grade Level Time-in-Grade: Submit a recent SF-50 or a combination of progressive SF-50s that prove you possess at least one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-10 level in the Federal service. Do not submit a general adjustment or award SF-50 as they do not prove time-in-grade. Specialized Experience Requirement include but are not limited to:GS-11 Specialized Experience: One year of Specialized Experience which is equivalent to the GS-10 level. Specialized experience is defined as comprehensive experience: Applying federal, state, and local laws regarding benefit programs; Conducting interviews to evaluate eligibility for benefits and services; Evaluating supporting evidence to determine eligibility leading to entitlement of awarding of benefit; Applying state laws pertaining to conservatorship and estate administration and/or Knowledge of fiduciary and field examination programs sufficient to protect beneficiary's assets OR, Education substitution of a Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree; or 3 full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree in Business, Management, Economics, Finance, or another degree with coursework that demonstrates the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do this work of this position; or an LL.M., if related. Graduate level courses must demonstrate your education has provided you the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work of this position (as described in the How You Will Be Evaluated section of this announcement). OR, Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at the GS-11 level. Only education beyond the first two and a half years hours of graduate study may be used to combine with experience. To compute, divide your total months of qualifying experience by 12. Then divide your semester hours of graduate education by 45. Add the two percentages. The total percentage must equal at least 100% to qualify. NOTE: All Education claimed by applicants must be verified by the appointing agency accordingly. Official or Unofficial transcripts must be submitted for all education claimed. Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religions; spiritual; community; student; social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience. Note: A full year of work is considered to be 35-40 hours of work per week. Part-time experience will be credited on the basis of time actually spent in appropriate activities. Applicants wishing to receive credit for such experience must indicate clearly the nature of their duties and responsibilities in each position and the number of hours a week spent in such employment. Physical Requirements: The work is mostly sedentary. However some walking, standing, bending, carrying of light items such as paper, books, small parts, etc. No special physical demands are required to perform the work. For more information on these qualification standards, please visit the United States Office of Personnel Management's website at http://://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/. Education A transcript must be submitted with your application if you are basing all or part of your qualifications on education. Note: Only education or degrees recognized by the U.S. Department of Education from accredited colleges, universities, schools, or institutions may be used to qualify for Federal employment. You can verify your education here: http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/. If you are using foreign education to meet qualification requirements, you must send a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency with your transcript in order to receive credit for that education. For further information, visit: http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ous/international/usnei/us/edlite-visitus-forrecog.html. Additional Information The Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP) and Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) provide eligible displaced Federal/VA competitive service employees with selection priority over other candidates for competitive service vacancies. To be qualified you must submit appropriate documentation (a copy of the agency notice, your most recent performance rating, and your most recent SF-50 noting current position, grade level, and duty location) and be found well-qualified (have a final rating of 85 or more) for this vacancy. Information about ICTAP and CTAP eligibility is on OPM's Career Transition Resources website at http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/workforce-restructuring/employee-guide-to-career-transition/. Placement Policy: The posting of this announcement does not obligate management to fill a vacancy or vacancies by promotion. The position may be filled by reassignment, change to lower grade, transfer, appointment, or reinstatement. Management may use any one or any combination of these methods to fill the position. If you are unable to apply online or need an alternate method to submit documents, please reach out to the Agency Contact listed in this Job Opportunity Announcement.